Wayne’s Weight Training Transformation

A Boot Camp for Kids

When my youngest daughter, Sasha, was born in 2022, I’d been a personal trainer for 15 years. Over that time I’d helped hundreds of men and women lose weight, build muscle, develop self-confidence and become fitter, both physically and mentally. But, I hadn’t been working with very many kids. 

Sasha’s birth got me thinking about the health of the young people in my community. I didn’t want her to end up like so many other children who were overweight and undertrained. 

Having done quite a bit of study and having seen countless examples in adults, I was also acutely aware of the mental health benefits that children can get from exercise. Depression was a major problem among young people in my community. In fact, my country had the dubious distinction of having the highest teen suicide rate in the world.

So I decided to do something about it. 

First, I approached the largest middle school in my city – which also happened to be the largest in the country – with a proposal to run a boot camp for kids, along with a once-weekly lunchtime healthy habits seminar in the library. When I explained that I was willing to do it all for no charge, the school authorities gave the idea their full support.

Second, I began the kid’s boot camp, in June of 2002, with a Friday school assembly presentation and an invitation to turn up at 7:30 the following Tuesday morning on the school field. I turned up at 7, along with a couple of my assistant trainers, who had also agreed to volunteer their time. We set out some tires, resistance bands, agility ladders, and cones and then waited to see how many would turn up.

At about 7:15, the kids started to trickle in. They stood around nervously in little groups, not sure what was in store for them. Then the trickle became a flood so that by 7:30 there were more than a hundred 11-13 year olds in front of us.

That first session went great. We’d put together a circuit that was fun and engaging for the kids, while also pushing them just beyond their current ability levels. Over the weeks and months, the numbers dwindled down as the novelty wore off. Four weeks in, we had a core group of around 40 kids who were serious about getting fitter. 

Our boot camp sessions began on the field. We also ended with a run through the local streets. As the winter weather set in, however, we began looking for an indoor location. The first location we pinpointed was a storage shed that was filled with 50 years of school junk. I organized a Saturday working bee with the kids and we managed to clear it out and fill it with used barbells, dumbbells, benches and resistance bands that we’d been able to scrape together. This gear was set up in a circuit to allow us to get 20 or more kids moving around a confined space at the same time. 

After about a year, we graduated to a dedicated gym. A new recreation center had been built and, thanks to the inspiration from the boot camp, the school paid for a separate gym for our bootcamp sessions. By then the lunchtime healthy habits sessions, which had begun as nutrition advice, had morphed into gym sessions with a hardcore group of boys who wanted to hit the weights. 

A Troubled Kid

After a couple of months of starting the bootcamp, I began to get feedback from teachers about how much more focused and attentive the students in their class who attended bootcamp were. They were more settled, less fidgety and generally seemed more positive. Of course, this was no surprise to me. The positive aspects being described were all part of the peripheral benefits that young people will receive from getting into an exercise program.

Before long, I was getting requests from teachers to put troubled kids in their class into the program. I was usually pretty dubious. I had no interest in babysitting youngsters who didn’t want to be there or, even worse, were being forced to come to bootcamp as punishment for bad behavior. 

A few of these troublemakers were actually mandated to attend boot camp as part of their ‘restorative’ program after committing a school ‘crime’. Most times, it didn’t work. They’d invariably turn up with an attitude, refuse to do what the others were doing and generally be a pain. 

Some of these kids would turn up with an assigned minder, paid by the state, to make sure that they followed through with the program. But even that didn’t work. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink!

One day, a teacher came into the gym at lunchtime, while I was taking a group of about eight boys through a chest and triceps workout. She proceeded to tell me about a kid named Wayne. By this woman’s description, Wayne was the most belligerent, uncooperative, disruptive and outright nasty kid to ever step foot in a classroom. She then went on to lay on the praise how bootcamp has been able to transform the attitude of other kids in her class. 

But this teacher didn’t want to throw Wayne into bootcamp. She wanted him to join my lunchtime workout group. She’d seen how weight training had transformed her own brother’s attitude and thought that it might be able to do the same for Wayne. 

But I wasn’t willing to allow Wayne to join our lunchtime group. Not yet anyway. I explained that the group of boys I was working with were all members of the Tuesday and Thursday morning bootcamps. They had first shown their commitment and consistency before being allowed to be part of the lunchtime weight training group. I wasn’t prepared to allow Wayne to bypass bootcamp and jump straight into the weights. 

The teacher then suggested that Wayne be allowed to join bootcamp. I then made it clear that I wasn’t interested in having him if he didn’t want to be there. But I agreed to meet with Wayne before I left the school that day and invite him personally to be part of bootcamp. 

Wayne and Me

I was escorted to one of the school’s detention rooms to meet Wayne. These were basically cupboards with no windows. The kids referred to them as the cells. 

He had all the attitude I’d expected, refusing to acknowledge me. Still, I laid out the rules for bootcamp, adding that I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t show up because it took guts and commitment and, besides, he probably couldn’t even do as many push ups as my beginner girls. 

I heard him let out a scoffing ‘whatever’ but then abruptly turned and left, not giving him the satisfaction of ‘performing’ any further.

The following Thursday, I wasn’t holding my breath that Wayne would turn up. When 7:30 rolled around, and he was a no show, I was more pleased than disappointed. I didn’t relish the idea of having to deal with his attitude. 

We were on the field, just getting into a tire relay workout when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him sauntering into view. He was wearing jeans along with his usual smirk. Without stopping what I was doing I called out to him that he was late, so would have to give me 20 push ups. 

I then turned back to the other kids. A few seconds later, one of them whispered, ‘He’s actually doing them.” I winked at the kid but didn’t acknowledge Wayne. About a minute later, he called out, ‘What am I supposed to do now?”

It was then that I turned and walked towards him. “You join in with the rest of us,” I said. “Get to the end of the line and do what the other kids are doing.”

As he made his way to the line of kids that were flipping tires,  I added, “And next time don’t turn up in jeans.”

It didn’t take long for Wayne to start playing up. He hadn’t been in the line for more than a few seconds, when he began hassling the kid in front of him. This boy’s name was Rodney, and he was one of the boys in my lunchtime workout group. I knew that he had recently knocked off the milestone of doing 50 push-ups in a row.

I went over and pulled the two bodies out of the line. I explained to Wayne that here we sort out our problems like men. If he had a problem with Rodney, he could challenge him to a push-up contest or get lost. A few seconds later, the challenge was on. 

Wayne went first. 

I hadn’t seen Wayne doing his punishment push ups because my back was turned. But now I noticed that he was only going halfway down. So, I immediately pulled him up and told him he was doing them wrong. I then got down and showed him how to do a full push-up, with the chest touching the grass on every rep. 

Wayne then got back down. He did 11 decent reps and then his arms began to get shaky. He finally got to 18, with the last two being pretty questionable.

Then it was Rodney’s turn. He proceeded to pump out smooth full reps with ease. He’d soon surpassed Wayne’s total. Rodney didn’t stop there though. He kept doing until he’d done 36 reps – twice the number that Wayne had managed.

Now came the moment of truth for Wayne – would he storm off in a pride wounded huff, or would he suck it up, pull his head in and get back in line.

He chose the latter course. I knew then that there was hope with this kid. 

Wayne in the Weight Room

Wayne became a regular boot camp attendee. His experience on that first session obviously made an impression on him. No longer did he turn up in jeans. After a while the smirky attitude also went away. 

Once the bravado was stripped away, Wayne proved himself to be a pretty disciplined guy. He pushed himself physically more than most of the other kids, literally going to failure on many exercises. 

After a month, Wayne hadn’t missed a Tuesday or Thursday session. When I spoke to his teacher, I got a good report about his class behavior. He certainly hadn’t transformed himself into an angel in a month, but he was less annoying and more respectful. 

I decided then that it was time for Wayne to graduate to the weight room.  He was pretty keen to hit the weights, thinking that he could jump in with the other boys who’d been training for months. 

Once again, he had to learn humility. I had him start with the lightest resistance band while the others were using barbells and dumbbells. Then he graduated to just the bar on the bench press, deadlift, and squats. After two weeks of this, we began adding poundages at his level.

A month in, Wayne was making great progress in the weight room. Not only was he a quick learner when it came to technique, this kid was naturally stronger than most of his peers. In fact, he was able to double his strength on the bench in six weeks. 

On the seventh week of Wayne’s weight-lifting sessions, his mother turned up to see me. She wanted to thank me for the changes in her son’s attitude that had taken place ever since he began coming to boot camp. When she asked me if there was anything she could do to support my efforts, I suggested that she buy some weights so he could also train at home.

Wayne’s Transformation

Wayne quickly became a weight-training junkie. Working out became his passion as he experienced the physical and mental benefits of training. His entire attitude in the classroom had changed. As a result, his grades improved. 

At the end of year school prize giving, Wayne was selected from more than 1200 students as the recipient of the most improved student award. He went on to do well in college. I ran into him when he was about 22. By now he was a muscular young guy who was working in construction. He was still working out. In fact, he was training for his first bodybuilding competition. 

I don’t know if Wayne ever competed but there’s one thing I’m pretty confident about; working out will be with him for life.